The best 4 lines that I ever read:

The stone is a perfect creature,
equal to itself,
mindful of it's limits
and filled exactly with a pebbly meaning.

(Zbigniew Herbert).

I have another friend.

He was intensely unhappy
and jumped from a bridge.

Now he sits
in a wheelchair
and is intensely happy!

I have a friend
who can't read or write.

I listen to him.

He always
hits the nail on the head!

Days , weeks?,
gone by -

stubbles,
beards appear
like weeds
in a garden;

the wash undone,
no clean clothes;

***** dishes
suffocating
a small kitchen
space;

plants not watered;

post unanswered;

knocks on the door
ignored.

The poison
must first run
it's course!

Then
there were no barriers,
inhibitions or obstacle courses
to be scaled or completed
before the advance was made.

Now
every inch of progress
had to be measured in reams and miles
of pure print and aimless wanderings.

Then
action was!

Now
it is a Calvary gone
numbly insane.

In the void of our ignorance
we see ourselves as objects
floating in the helpless realms
of Einstein's dot
infinitely robbed of ageing transcience
and comfort in a happy-go-lucky existence.

Now
we live not to die
and lie not to live
but lie to survive.

Then
none of that mattered.

Then
time ignored clocks
and man-made habits,
complimenting
the agnostic-god of system.

Winding up by the sea

Even the grown-ups appear content
as the first paces of evening
bring a freshening breeze with them.

Time for packing,
beachballs to deflate,
togs to wring out

and uncomfortable grains of sand
to wash away from the nigglies of one's toes
by the cold-water tap
at the local strong smelling
convenience.

In the awesome arrival
of your transcendent brilliance,
with all storm-clouds driven away,
my soul ignites into profound conflagration -
being endlessly consumed with raptures untold.